Forms Working Group Charter

The mission of the Forms Working Group, part of the XForms Activity, is to develop specifications for
binding data, logic and user interface on the web, producing a system that
scales from low-end devices through to the enterprise level.

Teleconferences: Weekly
Face-to-face: 2-3 per year
Virtual meetings: 1-2 per year

Scope

During the production of XForms 1.0 and XForms 1.1, the working group has
kept a wiki of future
features for adoption in later versions. These features have been roughly
divided into 'low-hanging fruit' features that can easily be adopted into a new
version, and requirements that need more work to find suitable solutions.

An example of the first type is the ability to read and write other data
formats than just XML-based ones. An example of the second type is the ability
to keep parallel data structures in sync using the XForms constraint system.

The scope includes liaison with other related W3C groups and activities, as
described below, for instance to ensure that XForms meets W3C goals for
accessibility and internationalization, and to show how XForms can be
effectively integrated with other W3C specifications.

Success Criteria

The success of the Forms Working Group will be judged on how well it
fulfills the above objectives in terms of the deliverables and milestones set
out below, and the deployment of its deliverables.

Production of stable documents addressing the work items listed in the Deliverables
section.

Test suites for each deliverable with conformance criteria

Availability of multiple, independent, interoperable implementations of
each deliverable with conformance criteria, as demonstrated by an
implementation report (summarizing implementation status against the
relevant test suite) for each testable class of product, including user
agents

Liaisons

W3C Groups

XForms builds on XML Schema for data validation. W3C's work on XML
Schemas aims to provide a general solution for XML, while XForms is
focussed on the specific requirements for forms. This places a stronger
emphasis on representing constraints on data than is generally needed for
other applications of XML.

The Hypertext Coordination Group has the responsibility for ensuring
that reviews between Working Groups are planned and carried out so as to
meet requirements for deliverables and deadlines. The Hypertext
Coordination Group includes representatives for the XML Coordination
Group and for the Web Accessibility Initiative, as well as the Working
Groups in the Interaction and Ubiquitous Web Domains.

Many applications of interactive voice response systems can be
considered in terms of filling out forms. It is therefore of interest to
ensure XForms provides effective support for the foundation needed for
Voice Browsers.

External Groups

which is in charge of maintaining ODF and OOXML and is also a resource
for having Relax NG and NVDL schemas

Participation

To be successful, the Forms Working Group is expected to have 8 or more
active participants for its duration. Effective participation to Forms Working
Group is expected to consume one to two days per week for editors, co-chairs,
and team contacts. There is no minimum participation requirement for other
members. The Forms Working Group will also allocate the necessary resources for
building Test Suites for each specification.

Communication

This group primarily conducts its work on the public mailing lists
public-forms@w3.org (archive) and
www-forms@w3.org (archive) for public
feedback and discussion.

Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face
meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Forms Working Group home page.

Decision Policy

As explained in the Process Document (section 3.3), this group will
seek to make decisions when there is consensus. When the Chair puts a question
and observes dissent, after due consideration of different opinions, the Chair
should record a decision (possibly after a formal vote) and any objections, and
move on.

This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C
Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process
Document requires.

Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February
2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to
issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a
Royalty-Free basis.

About this Charter

This charter for the Forms Working Group has been created according to section 6.2 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict
between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the
W3C Process shall take precedence.